1. The aims of public policy
- Original purpose of economic policy
- Economic policy in the twentieth century
- The range of economic policies
- Taxing, borrowing and spending
- Rationales for economic policies
- Market failure and government failure – the public choice revolution
- The boundary of government and the market
2. Social welfare and growth
- Social welfare versus growth
- Growth and sustainability
- Measuring welfare
- Dashboard approaches to measurement
- Distribution and social welfare
- Inequality and social welfare
- The well-being revolution in public policy
3. Market Failures
- What are market failures?
- Congestion externalities
- How to tackle externalities
- The Coase theorem
- The limits of market solutions
- Other institutions to solve market failures
4. State ownership, privatisation and regulation
- Nationalisation and privatisation
- What can go wrong? The example of UK rail privatisation
- Regulating privatised industries
- Deregulating taxis
- Competition and regulation
5. Industrial policy
- 'Horizontal' industrial policy
- The Asian model of industrial policy
- Strategic innovation policies
- Government's role in the internet and the World Wide Web
- Government investment in R and D
6. Social choice and individual choice
- The dangers of the ‘states versus markets’ perspective
- Institutional approaches
- Exit, voice and loyalty
- Social capital and social norms
- Positional goods
- Institutions and public sector reform
- Public service motivations
7. Social security
- The growth of the welfare state
- Inequality and redistribution
- Minimum wages
- Negative income tax and basic income
- Pension provision
- Social security in development
8. Behavioural public policy
- What is behavioural economics?
- Behavioural economics in public policy
- Pension saving
- Behavioural regulation
- Behavioural economics in development
- The ethics of nudging
9. Government Failure
- Regulatory failures
- Unintended consequences
- Collective action and interest groups
- Corruption
- Project disasters
10. Evaluating public policies
- Benefit-cost analysis
- Contingent valuation and stated preference
- Public value
- Randomised control trials
- Humility and complexity
- Conclusions
We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.